Summary

On 7 July, an independent six-member panel delivered a scathing review of how the World Health Organization (WHO) has handled the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. It also proposed wide-ranging reforms that would enable the agency to better tackle the next major health crisis—from giving it more money and power to setting up a special, semi-independent emergency center. But whereas many of the suggestions have been praised as sensible, WHO's complex, politicized governance structure and entrenched bureaucracy make it difficult to change, people who know the $2 billion U.N. agency say. Much will depend on member states' willingness to give the agency additional funding and powers.